Let's Imaginate And Then There Were None!
Let's Imaginate And Then There Were None! is the 74th arc in Housepets!. Characters * Tarot * Grape * Peanut * Fido * Marvin * Bailey * Joey * Sabrina * Squeak * Maxwell * King * What chicken Plot During setup, Bailey asks if there will be an audience. Peanut says that would ruin spontaneity. Joey says he has a camcorder they can use to record their play, but Peanut quashes that, saying an unseen audience judging their every move would be even worse. And Then There Were None play begins Anthony Marston proposes a toast to Mr. Owen, the mysterious man who invited all ten of the guests to 'Indian Island' for various reasons, who is not present among them. They notice ten figurines on the table before them, and Marston calls for a drink. Vera Claythorne replies that Marston has been calling drinks for literally'' everything since they've arrived. Marston performs the 'Ten Little Indians' nursery rhyme, to the annoyance of all the others, as he takes far too long and starts improvising a jazz routine towards the end, to which Justice Lawerence Wargrave tells him to stop. Suddenly Thomas Rogers plays a record, where the voice of Mr. Owen accuses each of the ten guests of murder (though Rogers had to flip the record over to continue.) When questioned by Wargrave, Rogers reveals that he was instructed to play the record by Mr. Owen himself. Afterwards Marston immediately shouts out that the accusation against him is true; he had killed two people while driving recklessly, and his only regret was that his car had become dented. He takes a drink of his orange soda and is immediately poisoned to death. The next morning, Dr. Edward Armstrong informs the others that Ethel Rodgers died last night in her sleep from a sedative overdose. William Blore suspects something is wrong, when Phillip Lombard realizes two of the figurines are missing from the table. Vera recounts the first two lines of the poem, and realizing the deaths correspond to lines in the nursery rhyme, Blore's instincts tell him that Mr. Owen is behind this. Lombard, Blore, Wargrave, and Armstrong all go out in search of Mr. Owen, who they believe is hiding out on the island. After returning from a fruitless search, they come back to find General Macarthur dead, having been stabbed in the back with a knife. Armstrong comes to the conclusion that all three deaths were acts of murder. Wargrave believes that Mr. Owen brought them all together because each of them as been accused off a crime, yet they've all been untouched by the law. As Blore points out, there is nobody else on the island. Wargrave tells them that the only way Mr. Owen could've gotten on the island is the same way the guests did, meaning that Mr. Owen is one of them''. Meanwhile Emily tells Rogers to stop banging the pots and pans (creating the lightning sound effect), and he complains that his wife was the one who handled the kitchen. The seven remaining house guests vote on who they think Mr. Owen is, and Rogers 'wins' with two votes. When he angrily asks why he's being accused, the others tell him that it's because he's the butler. Blore tells Rogers that he has to sleep in the woodshed, and that they'll lock the doors so that he can't escape. When Vera asks what if one of them is the murderer, Blore comes up with a solution: since it's vital for the killer to remove a figurine from the table, they'll lock both doors to the dining room and give the key to Rogers without telling him what it's for. However, the plan does not work, as Rogers is found murdered the next morning with an axe in his head. Emily Brent tells the others that she feels that it was stupid to kill the only servant, murdering is considered low class, and that only poor people commit 'real' crime. Blore deliberately "wonders" out loud if she is the murderer, whereupon she is found dead by a bumblebee sting (which was anticipated by the others, given their distaste for her) confirming Blore's "The person we suspect the most is likely to die next" theory. Armstrong locks away all of the potential weapons, whereupon Lombard admits to bringing a gun to the island. Upon searching his luggage, they are unable to find it, so he nervously tries to deny having it at all. Later, Armstrong and Wargrave are playing pool when the lights go out. In the darkness, the two clear each other's names, and agree to trust one another. To stay safe, the remaining house guests agree that only one person will leave the others at any given time. Vera goes to take a shower and screams after she realizes there's no hot water, causing the others to run upstairs to help. Once upstairs they realize Wargrave is not with them. They find him with a gunshot wound in his head, with Armstrong confirming his death. On the last day, Lombard wakes Vera up from a nap, asking where Armstrong is. Holding his gun, he tells her he saw someone sneaking in the night, and that Armstrong is Mr. Owen. When Vera angrily asks Lombard where he got the gun from, he simply states he found it. As Lombard and Vera rush to the beach to find Armstrong, Blore has a sudden realization, but as he ponders the third-to-last death in the poem, he is killed (by a teddy bear.) Vera and Lombard find Armstrong's dead body washed upon the shore. The two look at each other before Vera swipes the gun from Lombard's paws, believing him to be the killer. When Lombard questions on how shooting him fits into the rhyming scheme, Vera states that the whole poem was a loose fit anyways. When Lombard points out how the deaths correlated with the poem, Vera points the gun in his face, convinced that only the real Mr. Owen would know what he was talking about. Returning to the house, Vera finds a lone noose hanging from the ceiling, along with the true killer- Justice Wargrave, who had faked his own death. He reveals he wanted to deliver perfect justice to those he found guilty, and it was fairly easy to predict everyone's movements. He told Armstrong that he would draw a gunshot wound on the paper bag he's wearing to help catch the killer, and then pushed him off of a cliff when the two met that morning. Wargrave tells Vera that his understanding of behavior tells him she will now hang herself in a post-hypnotic trance. When Vera refuses, Wargrave states it doesn't matter; he's going to drink poison and she'll be alone with nine dead bodies, so she's destined to hang either here or in prison. Wargrave does tickle the notion that maybe Vera didn't shoot Lombard after all, and had made secret pact with him so they could both escape alive. Vera quickly dismisses this as she wraps the noose around her neck, saying definitely she shot him, as he was "totally creepin." Wargrave solaces in the fact his understanding of behavior wasn't usurped by an ironic comeuppance as he drinks the poisoned soda. Afterwards, Inspector Maine is shown flipping through his notebook, asking the guests if they're wondering why he's gathered them, despite the fact they are all dead in a pile. And Then There Were None play ends Events *N/a Trivia *This is the first time Fido, Joey, Squeak, Marvin, Bailey and King have appeared in an Imaginate! production. *This is the longest Imaginate! production to date. **Although Imaginate, Too! is longer by comic strips, not all of them dealt with the production. Category:Story Arcs Category:Comics Category:2014 Category:Imaginate! Category:20+ Page Arcs